


With You My Life Takes Another Path

by Dark_Runs_Out



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, SO MUCH FLUFF, basically Malec in Rome, there's not much other plot than them travelling and being in love, they are so in love it hurts, travelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-26 06:51:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12551620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_Runs_Out/pseuds/Dark_Runs_Out
Summary: Alec Lightwood wasn't used to be travelling all around the globe. Actually, if he was completely honest he hadn't even seen that much of America yet.*Basically Magnus and Alec taking a short trip to Rome and being in love.





	With You My Life Takes Another Path

**Author's Note:**

> This story has been lying in my drafts for a while now and I've been editing it again and again.  
> I'm still not completely content with everything, but I figured I'd never be completely content with it and who knows when I'd get the motivation again to actually post it?
> 
> Please note that English is not my first language, so there will most likely be some grammatical errors.
> 
> The title is taken (and translated) from the song "È con te" by my favourite Italian singer Francesca Michielin.
> 
> Without further ado, have some tooth rotting fluff of our favourite couple travelling to Rome, the unofficial city of love. ;)

Alec Lightwood wasn't used to be travelling all around the globe. Actually, if he was completely honest he hadn't even seen that much of America yet.

His whole childhood had been spent at the Institute, training to become a good Shadowhunter. Sure, there had been the occasional trips to Alicante, but apart from that, he hadn't seen much of the world.

And the shadowhunter hadn't changed anything about that when he grew older. His whole life had been dedicated to his work, protecting New York from demons. Therefore, it had never occurred to him to travel - to spend time away from work and away from home.

But then Magnus had entered his life and had turned it upside down, had made Alec question every plan and concept he had ever had about his life. And at first that had scared the hell out of the shadowhunter, not knowing what would await him once he let all his concepts go. But in the end, he realized that he couldn't live a lie anymore. The warlock had torn down a wall inside him that he would never have been able to rebuild.

So he had chosen Magnus, chosen to let all the plans he had had for his future before go and let the warlock introduce him to a totally different kind of life.

And there had never been a minute Alec had regretted that decision.

Because now there was love, where there once had only been self-hatred and repression. He was dreaming about the future in bright colors now, instead of reluctantly accepting the life he was supposed to have. There was a warm body next to him, every time he woke up. There were whispered conversations late at night ending with "I love you” s. There were "welcome home" kisses and there were hands, never wanting to let each other go. And then there was travelling.

Alec had never expected to like it this much. But with a warlock boyfriend that could portal them anywhere they wanted to, without any travelling stress, the shadowhunter really began to enjoy exploring other places and getting to know more about their culture.

He still remembered the excitement he had felt when they had travelled to Tokyo on one of their first dates. Alec had been awestruck by how different everything was, the streets, the atmosphere, the people. He had wanted to take everything in, look into every little alley and get translations to every single sign they passed. And instead of getting annoyed by the shadowhunter's curiosity and thousands of questions, Magnus had explained everything he could to Alec, had even found joy in telling Alec little stories about Japanese culture.

And it had been such a beautiful evening for both of them, they had started to make it a tradition - every time they both had the evening off and weren't too tired they'd go to a different place and Magnus would show Alec around, telling him all he knew about it.

 

Today was another one of these days, Alec had finished work early and when he got home he found his favorite warlock, already dressed fancily in a glittering jacket and tight trousers, in his loft.

"Alexander, there you are, I'm so glad you could make it home early. I already have a beautiful destination in mind that we could visit today!", Magnus exclaimed as soon as he caught sight of his boyfriend entering the room, strolling towards the shadowhunter and placing a short hello-kiss on his lips.

"Hey Mags.", Alec responded with a big smile on his face, "I can't wait to see where you're taking me today. Should I change into something else before?"

The shadowhunter always remembered to ask about what to wear now – after the Iceland incident. Magnus had forgotten to tell him to put on warm clothes back then, which lead to Alec nearly freezing his ass off once they exited the portal.

"Hmm... well, you should be fine in a t-shirt and a light jacket I guess... Although a change into something a bit finer probably won't hurt. I may have booked us a place in a fancy restaurant..." Magnus added and winked.

"Magnus, you don't have to do this every time we go out, you know I'd be fine with getting take away, as long as I'm with you!", Alec protested, feeling bad his boyfriend always booked them dinner in expensive restaurants and then refused to let the shadowhunter pay for anything.

"Oh, I know I don't have to, darling. But I want to... And now no more protests, get changed and then let's go!"

And so Alec did, choosing a t-shirt flecked with grey, black jeans and a casual black jacket. When he returned to the living room Magnus was already waiting for him. The Shadowhunter linked his arms with his boyfriend and together they walked through the portal already waiting for them.

*

The first thing Alec noticed stepping out of the portal was the mild warm air surrounding him. It was neither too warm nor did he freeze in his light jacket, a mild breeze brushing his skin. The second thing he noticed was the huge, illuminated building in front of them. It looked old, very old, half of the outer walls of the huge arena missing

"It's impressive, isn't it?", Magnus announced next to him, "Welcome to Rome darling!"

_Yes, of course_ , Alec thought, _that had to be the world-famous Colosseum_. He had seen pictures of it before, but never ones shot at night, he had to admit it looked even more beautiful illuminated against the dark sky.

After admiring it for at least a minute, the shadowhunter finally took his gaze from the huge building in front of him and examined his surroundings. They were standing on a huge square in front of the arena and there were some other tourists lingering around them, though not as many as Alec would have expected in front of such a famous landmark.

"It's already closed," Magnus explained as if having read Alec's thoughts, "but that shouldn't be a huge obstacle for us, don't you think?"

And indeed, there were huge perks of being supernatural tourists that could make themselves invisible to mundanes whenever they wanted to. Alec couldn't count the times they had taken advantage of that already in order to skip long lines in front of famous landmarks or enter them outside of their visiting times.

So just like that they went into the Colosseum, having to climb over some barriers, but staying completely unnoticed by the people around them.

They climbed up the stairs that led them to the former grandstand, where you could take a walk all around the arena nowadays, and looked down at the former stage.

"Did you know the Romans could actually flood this whole arena in order to act out naval battles?”, Magnus asked, not really expecting a reply from his boyfriend. “Imagine the effort that took! All that just to entertain the people and keep them from revolting! And did you know the reason there's only a bit of the outer wall left is that it was destroyed by an earthquake? And as the Colosseum was totally abandoned by that time the people just reused the tumbled stone to build other buildings like churches and palaces..."

Alec loved listening to Magnus recounting all the stories and facts he had gotten to know in the hundreds of years of his life. To listen to them while standing at the same spot they took place about two millennia ago was such a surreal feeling. Alec could nearly picture the gladiators fighting for their lives down in the arena.

When Magnus had finished his stories, Alec grabbed his hand and together they looked up at the sky. There weren't many stars visible, light pollution keeping them from being seen in such a huge city. There was the moon though, shining nearly at its fullest, a beautiful ball of light illuminating the darkness.

Alec looked back at Magnus, just to find the warlock's unglamoured eyes beaming at him with such joy he just couldn't keep his thoughts to himself.

"Magnus, what's "moon" in Italian?"

His boyfriend shot him a confused look and raised his eyebrows questioningly at the random question, but nevertheless answered after a few seconds: " _La Luna_ I think… Why do you want to know that?".

"Well, I've just been thinking about how beautiful the moon looked tonight and then I looked at your eyes and found some similarities between them and… oh god just ignore what I was just saying, that was stupid, I wasn’t thinking…"

Alec could feel the blood rushing into his cheeks, he had regretted the words as soon as he had spoken them. Hell, he hadn’t even intended to speak them out loud. Being around Magnus just sometimes made him loose the ability to filter what he was saying – which always ended up in him belting out the most embarrassing declarations of love.

"Relax Alexander," Magnus chuckled and Alec just wanted to be swallowed up by the earth, "everything’s fine. That was actually a quite adorable compliment, I’m flattered, really…”

“I think we should get going though, before you turn into the next Propertius...", the warlock added, trying to hold back a chuckle.

When Alec just stared at Magnus questioningly in response, his cheeks still reddened, the warlock added:

"Propertius was a roman poet that wrote many love poems… Wait, I think I might recall one…”

And before Alec reply, his boyfriend began to cite:

 

" _Liber eram et vacuo meditabar vivere lecto;_

_at me composita pace fefellit Amor._

_Cur haec in terris facies humana moratur?_ "

 

"Magnus," Alec said after a few moments had passed, "I can't understand Latin. Care to translate it?"

And with a shy smile and a meaningful look, that made Alec all the more attentive, Magnus began to translate:

 

"I was free and intended to live with my bed being unshared,

but though I arranged my peace, Amor betrayed me.

Why does such mortal beauty exist on earth?"

 

Heat went through Alec's body. He was sure his boyfriend hadn't chosen this quote randomly. And that fact made his heart burst with joy. Because no matter how many times they exchanged "I love you's", declarations like that would always catch the shadowhunter off guard. He knew that Magnus loved him too, but sometimes his brain couldn't stop reminding him of all his flaws and insecurities and then Alec just couldn't help but think that the warlock deserved so much better than him.

So, when Magnus said stuff like that, indicating the depths of his love for Alec, it made all of the shadowhunter's insecurities look ridiculous. Magnus loved him and Alec would do everything he could to make sure it would stay like this forever.

The shadowhunter didn't know how to put all these thoughts and feelings, that went through him in this moment into words, so he opted to just show him.

He raised his hands to Magnus’ face and cupped it in his hands, closing the distance between them and kissing him slowly, trying to put everything he felt into that kiss.

After what could have been seconds or minutes, the warlock put his hand on Alec's chest, slowly pulling away. There was a spark in his eyes that told Alec he had understood.

They gazed into each other's eyes for a few seconds more before Magnus began to chuckle.

"Now enough of this sappy stuff though, we wanted to see the city!"

 

*

 

After they exited the Colosseum they slowly strolled along the street that led them from the antique arena to the _Piazza Venezia_ , all the while they were admiring the Roman Forum they could see on their left, Magnus telling stories about the old marketplace.

When they reached the square, they stopped to admire the huge white building in front of them. It was glowing in white light and there was the statue of a horseman in front of it, Vittorio Emmanuele, as Magnus explained.

They decided to head towards the restaurant then as both of them had gotten quite hungry. As the location was too far to reach by foot Magnus quickly created a portal which brought them right onto a busy narrow street.

" _Trastevere_ ," the warlock explained, "it's Rome's most popular quarter by nighttime. It's famous for its narrow streets and its many pubs and restaurants."

It was beautiful too, the narrow streets were surrounded by many ancient, stereotypical Italian houses filled with tourists from all over the world and nice looking restaurants everywhere.

There were street artists juggling or singing Italian songs and there were street vendors everywhere trying to sell the most unnecessary stuff Alec had ever encountered, from selfie sticks to strange balls that'd glow if you threw them in the air.

The atmosphere was really loose, people talking everywhere in loud Italian, all of them strolling along the streets, enjoying the warm evening breeze. Alec could have walked another few kilometers and wouldn't have minded it. But then Magnus gave him a sign to stop and Alec looked at the building in front of them. It looked old, as most of the buildings in this quarter and it wasn't in a perfect shape anymore either, but that only added to its charm. It had huge windows with green blinds and there was ivy climbing up its walls.

On the ground floor, right in front of them there was the restaurant they were going to have dinner in, Alec assumed. It looked really cozy with its simple wooden tables and chairs under parasols in front of it, a simple chalkboard next to them announcing the menu. Magnus grabbed his hand and pulled him inside.

A friendly looking waiter immediately greeted them.

"Ciao." Alec stammered less eloquently. His Italian skills were limited to the words "pizza", "pasta" and "cappuccino".

Magnus, on the other hand, was beaming with confidence while talking in beautiful (at least as far as Alec could judge) Italian to the waiter.

" _Buonasera, signore. Ho prenotato una tavola per due, per me e il mio bellissimo fidanzato qui_."

With that the warlock shot him a beaming smile and intertwined their fingers and though Alec had no idea what his boyfriend had just been talking about, he smiled either way.

The waiter looked a bit startled at that, but after a few seconds he was smiling again and led them to a table in front of a window.

They both sat down across from each other and for a moment Alec was taken aback by the view of his beautiful boyfriend in front of him, lit by candlelight.

"Thank you, Mags. This has been an amazing evening so far."

"Oh shush Alexander," Magnus pouted, "you haven't even tasted the amazing _vino_ I'm going to order. You can thank me after that."

Alec just shook his head and smiled in response and grabbed the menu. After having read through a few of the listed dishes he couldn’t help but chuckle.

"What's up, darling?", Magnus asked, slightly confused.

"Nothing..." Another giggle escaped the shadowhunter. "It's just... If you offer translated menus, shouldn't you make sure the translations are correct and not just copy paste them into Google Translator?"

Alec turned his menu around and showed it to Magnus.

"I mean _carbonate spaghetti_ \- What's that even supposed to mean?"

Magnus started to giggle now too.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that’s supposed to be the translation for _Spaghetti alla Carbonara_ , a regional pasta dish made with egg cheese, bacon and pepper, really delicious… Actually, we could order it if you want to, to check if I’m wrong? “

That proposition was probably meant rather jokingly, but after having gone through the whole menu together, Magnus translating most of the original Italian dish names himself, they decided to order the spaghetti alla carbonara after all, it was a local dish and Alec had never eaten it before.

It turned out that Magnus had been right after all and so they enjoyed their non-carbonated, actually really delicious spaghetti with the promised exquisite wine.

 

When they were done the pair decided to portal to the _Piazza di Spag_ na to take one last walk through the city center, wanting to pay the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain a visit and maybe find a good ice cream en route.

As it was quite late already the square they had portaled to was nearly abandoned. Thanks to that they had a great view on the huge white steps, leading to a beautiful church with two bell towers.

They took some photos, firstly only of their surroundings, but then they decided to take some selfies too, documenting their smiling faces in front of the amazing view.

On their way to the Trevi Fountain, which was in walking distance, Alec spotted a bar that was still selling ice cream at 2 am in the night and insisted on buying his boyfriend a cone. Of course, he had bought himself one too and like that they arrived at the Trevi Fountain: hand in hand, enjoying their ice cream and smiling all over.

It was a beautiful sight, the pompous white fountain, illuminated in the night with its illustrious statues overlooking the sparkling, bright blue water.

"You know what's a tradition when being here?", Magnus asked, bringing Alec's attention back to him.

"No Mags", Alec answered after a few seconds of expectant silence from his boyfriend, "tell me."

The warlock grinned, and with a flick he had summoned two coins in his hand.

"You couldn't have just taken them out of your wallet, could you?", Alec laughed, shaking his head in disbelief.

Magnus' grin just grew wider in response.

"Where would be the fun in that?"

The shadowhunter just rolled his eyes.

"Now tell me, what are we gonna do with these coins?"

"You still haven't figured it out yet?" Magnus mocked but began to explain after a few seconds.

"Well, generally it's supposed to bring luck to throw a coin over your left shoulder into the fountain. Furthermore, legend says that throwing one coin guarantees a safe return to Rome, two coins make you fall in love with a Roman and three coins let you marry that person. But as I don't want you to fall for a Roman, or let alone marry him, I only have one coin for each of us."

Alec had to smile at that, he didn't want to fall for any other person either, he knew he wanted to love his beautiful warlock for as long as he lived. He stretched his hand towards his boyfriend's, grabbed one of the coins, turned his back towards the fountain and right as he wanted to throw the coin the shadowhunter heard people clapping.

He turned around, looking for the cause of the noise. There weren't many people around at this nighttime, maybe 10 or 15 others that were all looking at the place right in front of the fountain.

A man was kneeling in front of a broadly smiling woman. And from the way the man slipped a ring on his partner's finger, Alec could guess what just happened.

The woman took the other by the hands now and helped him up to his feet again and as soon as they were both standing, they fell into each other's arms laughing so happily it made the shadowhunter's heart burst with love too.

He couldn't take his eyes from the scene, those two people being so absolutely happy, promising each other a future together.

While he was still staring at the couple he felt Magnus' hands slip into his. And suddenly a realization hit Alec, so hard it nearly knocked the breath out of him: he wanted this too. And not just with anyone. With Magnus, the kindest soul he had ever gotten to know. The person that had saved him from his own self-doubts and fears, that had shown him he deserved to be loved, could be loved and that there was nothing wrong with him. Alec wanted to spend the rest of his life with the warlock, giving him back all the love he had.

"Alec?" ... "Alexander, are you okay?"

Magnus' concerned voice made Alec come back to reality.

"Oh... yes, of course... I was just... thinking..." he stammered, facing his boyfriend again.

"Yeah, I noticed that, darling. You seemed kinda lost in your thoughts. How about we make our wishes now and then get back home? It's quite late already."

"Yes." Alec responded, grateful the warlock hadn't asked further questions. He turned his back towards the fountain and took the coin in his right hand. He saw Magnus doing the same thing before closing his eyes and throwing the little object over his left shoulder.

_One day I want to marry Magnus Bane. I want to love him as long as I live and I always want to be the best for him, making his life better every day, in every way._

When Alec opened his eyes again the warlock was standing in front of him, an amused look on his face.

"So, what did you wish for, Alexander? It had to have been a rather long wish for the time you were standing there with your eyes closed."

"I won't tell you!" Alec exclaimed, "Otherwise it won't come true and I really want it to become reality."

Magnus responded with giving him his best puppy eyes, and by the angel, that was unfair, his boyfriend knew all too well that Alec couldn't resist those.

"Okay..." Alec sighed, "I'll give you a hint, but I really won't say any more than that... It involved you."

A big smile spread across the warlock’s face. "Mine did too."

With that Magnus closed the distance between them and kissed Alec slowly and lovingly, putting all of his feelings into that kiss. And at that moment the shadowhunter was nearly certain that Magnus felt the same way about the future, about their future. Together.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not Italian and I'm not from Rome. I have spent 7 months in this city though, so I've been to all the places mentioned in the story.  
> Furthermore that scene at the Trevi Fountain actually happened to me as I was strolling through the city at night with some friends, it was a really beautiful and romantic atmosphere, so I just couldn't keep from including it in this little story.  
> Apologies to all Italian readers for possible errors in that one Italian sentence. It's strange, I've written this whole fic in English, which isn't my first language either and still I'm most insecure about this one Italian sentence...
> 
> Anyways, feel free to share your thoughts about this story with me, as I said, I'm not really sure if this is even good at all...


End file.
